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Author News & Interviews

John F. Ross is the award-winning author of WAR ON THE RUN: The Epic Story of Robert Rogers and the Conquest of America's First Frontier, and has served as the Executive Editor of American Heritage and on the Board of Editors at Smithsonian magazine. His latest book, ENDURING COURAGE: Ace Pilot Eddie Rickenbacker and the Dawn of the Age of Speed, is the electrifying true story of the beginning of America’s love affair with speed, and how one man --- Eddie Rickenbacker --- showed a nation the way forward.

In this interview with Bookreporter.com’s Greg Fitzgerald, Ross discusses what exactly drove “Fast Eddie” to pioneer a previously unexplored area of air transportation, and how crucial timing --- as well as the country’s overall “can-do” attitude --- was to his advancements. He also talks about the issue of “hero worship” when it comes to writing the biographies of national heroes, and why he feels so drawn to the theme of “courage at pivotal moments in American history.”

Lauren Francis-Sharma, a child of Trinidadian immigrants, was born in New York City and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. Her debut novel, 'TIL THE WELL RUNS DRY, tells the twinned stories of a spirited woman’s love for one man, her bottomless devotion to her children, and the family secret she must keep to protect them all. In this interview with Bookreporter.com’s Jana Siciliano, Francis-Sharma talks about the real-life inspiration for the story: her grandmother, and the regret she felt for not seizing the opportunity to get to know her grandmother’s history better. She also shares her sunny life philosophy, which is rooted in Trinidadian culture, what she learned from being a lawyer at a high-profile firm, and a little hint at what she’s working on next.

Francesco Durante is a journalist and Professor of Literature at the University of Suor Orsola Benincasa. Robert Viscusi, Ph.D., is Professor of English and executive officer of the Wolfe Institute for the Humanities at Brooklyn College, president of the Italian American Writers Association, novelist, critic and scholar. Between the two of them, they have quite a firm handle on Italian-American literature and culture. Durante curated and edited ITALOAMERICANA, a definitive collection of classic writings on, about and from the formative years of the Italian-American experience; Viscusi edited the American edition, which is now available. In this interview with Bookreporter.com, the two men discuss the limitations of Gay Talese’s 1993 essay “Where are the Italian-American Writers?”, why newspapers were vital to literary culture in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and how sometimes vital pieces of history can get lost.

Nadia Hashimi's parents left Afghanistan in the 1970s before the Soviet invasion. In 2002, Hashimi visited Afghanistan for the first time. It wasn’t that trip, though --- at least not directly --- that inspired her debut novel, THE PEARL THAT BROKE ITS SHELL, but an article about the ancient Afghan custom of having girls dress and act like boys until they reach a marriageable age. In this interview with Bookreporter.com’s Alexis Burling, Hashimi opens up about her childhood as a first-generation American, how impressed she was by her Afghan cousins’ dedication to their education, despite obstacles, and why she feels “somewhat hopeful” for the political and social future of Afghanistan. On a lighter note, she talks about sassy Afghan women and how lucky she feels to have time in her life to be a writer and a pediatrician, in addition to being a mother.

Kevin O’Brien has come a long way since his days as a railroad inspector. Now he’s the bestselling author of 14 internationally published thrillers; his latest, TELL ME YOU’RE SORRY, may be his best to date. In this interview with Bookreporter.com’s Joe Hartlaub, O'Brien talks about what inspires his thrillers (including movies, nimble editors and metaphorical landladies), constructing his settings from memory, and how his experience as a wannabe screenwriter is elemental to the cinematic scope of his novels. He also explains why he loves throwing in odd details that are familiar to readers (“blasts from the past”) and considers what he would do if someone bought Jeffrey Dahmer’s boyhood home --- recently put on the market --- for him as a gift.